Club News

Mel: Players know how to bounce back

Boss holds up post-Villa response as example

PEPE Mel has called on his players to dig deep after their latest set-back against Cardiff - and show the character they displayed following January's 4-3 defeat at Villa.

Similarly to the derby reverse, the Baggies stormed into a two-goal lead within nine minutes against the Bluebirds.

Once again they failed to hang onto their lead and were dealt the hammer blow of conceding a last-gasp equaliser to their survival rivals.

But Albion responded to their Villa Park disappointment by pulling off an impressive 1-1 draw with title-challengers Liverpool.

And Mel is hoping they can bounce back with a positive result at fellow strugglers Norwich on Saturday (ko 3pm).

"We don't actually know how many points we'll need," he said.

"We need to focus on our next game against Norwich.

"Saturday's game was very similar to the game at Villa Park but we followed that up with a good display against Liverpool. 

"We need to do that again. We need that same attitude.

"We need to perform well. I believe we did well on Saturday.

"Perhaps there is a big responsibility playing on the mind of the players. 

"What I'm really concerned about is that we played a good game. 

"We played very well during the first-half and the players put in a good shift so I can't criticise them for that. 

"But we need to win games. As I said pre-match, the most important thing is to keep a clean sheet."